ibezdechi

As with other TC Christensen films, it tells and portrays Mormons as Mormons want to see themselves. His earlier film, 17 Miracles, has the same problem that everyone has Tide-clean clothes, perfectly shaved and groomed Schick faces, and nobody sweats, houses are perfectly painted like an early Disney movie. The acting is really community theater level.

This is one of the times where the trailer for the movie promises way more than the actual movie itself provides. While the characterizations in "Running With Scissors" are quite interesting and the depictions of a uber-dysfunctional family are admirable, the movie itself fails to hold itself together. Actress Annette Benning, actors Brian Cox, Ralph Fiennes, and Alec Baldwin provide good performances, the movie's pacing and storytelling quality seems to be dysfunctional by itself. The integration of 70's rock songs to nail down the film's main points disrupts the flow of the story to the point that one starts to reminisce about the song being played and the message of the song while you have to play a game of catch up as the story starts up again. Overall, the story of Augusten Barrows could be quite engaging but just like its characters, is schizophrenic. In order to gain perspective on the writer's experiences SOMEONE needs to be sane.

Most people know talented actor and comedian Andrew Bowen from his short time on FOX-TV's sketch TV show, "Mad TV." Unfortunately they more than likely have not learned about him as the producer/director and head writer of a self-produced film from 2000 called "The Haven." "The Haven" is a loving and poignant story of four friends and the the trials and tribulations of what their "circle of life" has meted them from their chance meeting in grade school, the carefree days through high school and college, and that awkward time between late adolescence and the beginning of "the rest of their lives." The story also honestly depicts the not-so-fun underbelly of the realities of life and relationships when maturing personalities clash. While "The Haven" has many moments most audience members can relate to, the script has its moments of implausibility from a storytelling standpoint, and moments of way-over-the-top overracting especially as it relates to the four boys' relationships and conflicts to their outside world (parents, girlfriends, etc.). These moments unfortunately distract from the intent of the main storyline and are compounded by what some may view as totally unmotivated gratuitous violence and possibly mar what could have been a "great" movie into a "good" movie. Despite this, "The Haven" is an a notable artistic achievement from Andrew Bowen and one can only hope he will be able to capitalize on this milestone of a project in his future endeavors on his obvious talents as an actor "and" producer/director/writer.